List of Toronto Blue Jays managers

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Cito Gaston is the only manager to win the World Series with the Blue Jays.

The Toronto Blue Jays are members of the American League (AL) East Division in Major League Baseball (MLB). There have been 14 different managers of the Blue Jays, the only Canadian baseball franchise in Major League Baseball. In baseball, the head coach of a team is called the manager (or more formally, the field manager). They are the only team outside the United States to win a World Series, and the first team to win a World Series in Canada.[1]

Cito Gaston has both managed and won the most games of any Blue Jays manager, with 1,731 games and 894 wins. He is followed by Bobby Cox in both categories, with 648 games and 355 wins. Gaston is the only Blue Jays manager to win a World Series in 1992 and 1993, the fourth African-American manager in MLB history, and was the first African-American manager to win a World Series.[2][3] Cox is the only Blue Jays manager to be awarded the AL Manager of the Year Award in 1985. Mel Queen has the best winning percentage by winning 80 percent of his 5 games coached.

Overview

The first manager of the Blue Jays was Roy Hartsfield. While his tenure was marked by conflict between players and last place finishes, Hartsfield was supported by general manager Pat Gillick as they worked on the same long term management strategy: developing young players around which to build a team.[4] Following the 1979 season, the Blue Jays opted not to renew his contract but offered him a position within the organization, which he declined.[5] Bobby Mattick served as manager on subsequent one-year contracts until Bobby Cox became available.[6] As Mattick accepted an executive position in the Blue Jays organization, Cox signed a one-year contract,[7] which was extended until to the 1985 season as he led the team out of last place for the first time, and into the playoffs in 1985. Shortly after Cox unexpectedly left the Blue Jays organization for the general manager position with the Atlanta Braves, third base coach Jimy Williams took over as manager.[8][9] Following late-season collapses in 1987 and 1988, and a poor start to the 1989 season, Williams was fired and hitting coach Cito Gaston took over.[10] Gaston managed the team for nine seasons, including two World Series wins, though batting coach Gene Tenace did substitute for him for several weeks in 1991 when Gaston was hospitalized with back pains.[11] In 1997, with the team in last place, Gaston was fired by general manager Gord Ash with 5 games remaining; pitching coach Mel Queen finished the season as manager.[12] Ash, seeking a more aggressive management style, hired Tim Johnson for his breadth of experience and communication skills.[13] Following an admission to lying about aspects of his military experience, a tactic he used to motivate players,[14] he was fired during spring training in 1999 and Jim Fregosi was signed to a two-year contract. When Rogers Communications acquired the Blue Jays organization, among other management changes, Fregosi was replaced with Buck Martinez.[15] In June 2002, as the team was struggling, new general manager J. P. Ricciardi fired Martinez and replaced him with third base coach Carlos Tosca.[16] Tosca, and his successor John Gibbons, each managed the team for several seasons but both were fired mid-season as the team struggled: Tosca in August 2004 replaced by first base coach Gibbons, and Gibbons in June 2008 replaced by former manager Gaston. Following Gaston's retirement at the end of the 2010 season, former Boston Red Sox pitching coach, John Farrell was introduced as the new manager of the Toronto Blue Jays.[17]

Key

# Number of coaches[a]
GM Regular-season games managed
W Regular-season wins
L Regular-season losses
Win% Regular season winning percentage
PGM Playoff games managed
PW Playoff wins
PL Playoff losses

Managers

File:John Gibbons crop.jpg
John Gibbons managed the Jays for five seasons from 2004-2008, before coming back in 2013.

Note: Statistics are correct as of the end of the 2015 Major League Baseball season.

#[a] Name Term GM W L Win% PGM[18] PW[18] PL[18] Achievements
1 Roy Hartsfield* 1977–1978 322 113 209 .351 — — —
2 Harry Warner[b] 1978 12 3 9 .250 — — —
– Roy Hartsfield 1979 162 53 109 .327 — — —
3 Bobby Mattick 1980–1981 268 104 164 .388 — — —
4 Bobby Cox 1982–1985 647 355 292 .549 7 3 4 AL East Division Championship (1985)
1985 AL Manager of the Year[19]
5 Jimy Williams 1986–1989 522 281 241 .538 — — —
6 Cito Gaston 1989–1991 417 235 182 .564 10 2 8 2 AL East Division Championships (1989, 1991)
7 Gene Tenace[c] 1991 33 19 14 .576 — — —
– Cito Gaston 1992–1997 902 448 454 .497 24 16 8 2 World Series Championships (1992, 1993)
8 Mel Queen 1997 5 4 1 .800 — — —
9 Tim Johnson 1998 162 88 74 .543 — — —
10 Jim Fregosi 1999–2000 324 167 157 .515 — — —
11 Buck Martinez 2001 159 79 80 .491 — — —
12 Cookie Rojas[d] 2001 3 1 2 .333 — — —
– Buck Martinez 2002 53 20 33 .377 — — —
13 Carlos Tosca 2002–2004 382 191 191 .500 — — —
14 John Gibbons 2004–2008 610 305 305 .500 — — —
– Cito Gaston 2008–2010 412 211 201 .512 — — —
15 John Farrell 2011–2012 324 154 170 .475 — — —
- John Gibbons 2013– 486 250 236 .514 11 5 6 AL East Division Champions (2015)

Notes

  • a A running total of the number of managers of the Blue Jays. Thus, any manager who has two or more separate terms as manager is only counted once.
  • b In 1978, Harry Warner managed as an interim for Roy Hartsfield for 12 games in the middle of the season, while Hartsfield spent 10 days in Atlanta with his ailing wife.[20]
  • c Gene Tenace coached until the end of the 1991 Toronto Blue Jays season; however, he did not coach in the playoffs, as he was only an interim manager for Cito Gaston.
  • d Cookie Rojas managed as an interim for Buck Martinez for 3 games in the middle of the season while Martinez attended to preparations for his mother-in-law's funeral and the funeral itself.[21]

References

General
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Specific
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